http://dfb.de/index.php?id=512461 Yuki won the goal of the month vote for October at the dfb website. Sorry, can't find the link to the goal.... On a different note but somewhat unrelated: I am going to see the US womens team against China in Detroit on December 8.
Today's news: Lyon and Canberra came to Japan yesterday. http://www.olweb.fr/fr/article/sejour-des-lyonnaises-a-tokyo-61241.html
Worried about how Beleza will do against OL without Sakaguchi. She is not only critical to Blezea, but is key for the NT against the bigger teams. I would feel better if Beleza could sub Rumi for Sakaguchi like the NT can!
With just over 24 hours before kick-off, i believe this is the perfect time to know your opponents. No, not Lyon... everybody knows Lyon. I'm talking Canberra. They are the reigning 2011-12 Australian W-League champions. The most recognizable name on their roster: Ariane Hingst. The Aussie league runs from October to January; they currently lie third after 5 rounds: http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/videos/wleague/Grand-Final-replay-ends-goaless/6590/4 http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/videos/wleague/Canberra-thump-Jets/6650/3 http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/videos/wleague/Canberra-keep-it-going/6716/2 http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/videos/wleague/WWL-rnd-4-|-Wanderers-Canberra-even/6789/1 http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/videos/wleague/WWL-Rnd-5-|-Victory-thump-Canberra/6880/1 They are well served by the online media - even live streaming (much like Germany). Seems to be local only though, i'm not sure: http://www.abc.net.au/news/sport/football/w-league-stream/
Some random pictures I've found, I don't know if you've seen these. Oyama Saki presents a t-shirt to the mayor. I'm sure she'd have loved to come to the Takahashi game but Nojima are playing on Friday too. Back in Fukushima, the JFA Academy team which beat Tokiwagi Gakuen. They had their second-highest attendance that day. Hopefully they'll come back to the area permanently soon. JFA Academy played INAC Kobe Leonessa in a training match. I'm hoping Ehime win against Nittaidai so that I can see them in Sendai again next weekend. Get those fireworks ready.
The fun never stops. The intervarsity championships' schedule was announced today. There's going to be some very tired women out there if they get to the latter stages of the Empress' Cup and then take part in this too. The International Pacific University Junior College may not be too familiar, but that's the university that the Ehime FC players are attached to, though Nakada Maiko has graduated. The Niigata University of Health and Welfare is the university where some of the Albirex Niigata players study. Kibi International University is of course the FC Takahashi university. The Nippon Sport Science University is Nittaidai, and they are by far the most successful university side in this competition. Their the current co-champions with Kanagawa University (they drew after extra time and there was no penalty shootout). The full schedule is on my blog, these are the first and second rounds, to be played in Hyogo. First Round Matches, ties to be played on Wednesday 26th of December: Match 1: Kyushu Kyoritsu University versus Kobe Shinwa Women's University Match 2: Yamagata University versus Shizuoka Sangyo University Match 3: Niigata University of Health and Welfare versus Kanagawa University Match 4: International Pacific University Junior College versus Tokuyama University Match 5: Sapporo University versus Aichi Toho University Match 6: Mukogawa Women's University versus Fukuoka University Match 7: Ehime University versus Sendai University Match 8: University of Tsukuba versus Hokuriku University Second Round Matches, ties to be played on Friday 28th of December: Match 9: Kyushu Kyoritsu University or Kobe Shinwa Women's University versus Waseda University Match 10: Yamagata University or Shizuoka Sangyo University versus Shobi University Match 11: Niigata University of Health and Welfare or Kanagawa University versus Musashigaoka College Match 12: International Pacific University Junior College or Tokuyama University versus Osaka University of Health and Sport Sciences Match 13: Sapporo University or Aichi Toho University versus Kibi International University Match 14: Mukogawa Women's University or Fukuoka University versus Kanto Gakuen University Match 15: Ehime University or Sendai University versus Himeji Hinomoto College Match 16: University of Tsukuba or Hokuriku University versus Nippon Sport Science University
About to embark on a four day holiday and all I can think about is if someone will capture the mobcast cup streams. If Bev and Becky have good performances in this tournament, they would have to get the call up for the USWNT, right?
Not sure about Becky, because she's maybe a little too old to start a new cycle with new Sermanni's USWNT and I suppose she was less brilliant than Goebel-Yanez this season, but I've seen on the USWNT thread that Bev has some fans since the Western New York Flash times and a good Mobcast Cup could definitely give her the visibility to get a call from Sermanni...
It maybe slightly off topic but I'm reading about new US women's league. It's very confusing. I just feel thank god JFA and L.League don't go down that road... It's simply not sustainable. The environment may not be great in Japan but at least we have stable league now. Well I guess it doesn't matter for US women's national team as they operate like a club team anyway. How many games the national team is gonna have by the end of this year? I hope they choose Europe if any Japanese players are to go abroad to play. It used to be only USA but the progress of some of the European leagues in recent years means I feel it's better there for players' development.
I like better European Leagues too, but I guess that having a national league in USA would be important for the development of club play in women's football. National Teams are quite ok these days, but women's football needs to thrive even between one big international tournament and another, and clubs are key to this kind of daily survival of the sport. I am not following what's happening in USA, after WPS 2012 folded and there were vague announcements of a comeback in 2013. Are there any meaningful news about the subject? Is it worth that I go scouting on the WPS threads or there is still blah-blah about nothing there?
I'm not opposing having a national league, but just thinking going for a full blown professional league is not sustainable at this moment. I can easily see this will collapse again soon. But as I said, it doesn't seem to affect their national team, so... It's not really our problem but my only concerns are that some of Japanese players going over there when this starts. Hope they wouldn't waste time just doing the fitness work for a couple of years rather than developing football skills - maybe harsh but you know what I'm getting at .
Any link to watch OL-Beleza that should start right now? I'll look around, but if someone gets a streaming feed, please post it here!
I can't help you out with a link, I'm watching it on television. Is it just my imagination or are there almost no spectators at the game?
An_turtar could you write to me Olympique Lyonnais in Japanese, so I can make a better Google-research? I know yet that NTV Beleza should be 日テレ・ベレーザ and I am trying this with "Mobcast Cup" in english, but I can't seem to find streams...
I couldn't get the link above to work, but this one did (same channel) http://www.justin.tv/sky_calcio_34#/w/4224883712
Ok, works for me!!! Thanks An_turtar!!! Well, let's hope that, if INAC reaches final, it can put up a better opposition...
Well, great, I just missed 10 minutes of the match and I missed 2 goals! There will be other goals, though, isn't it? Did someone watch these ones? How were there? Who scored?
The first goal was an own goal, I can't remember by whom (maybe Ariyoshi) and the second was a header but I don't know who scored that either because I was looking for a stream for you.